Friday, March 20, 2009

Newly Designed - Breslov.org

Received via e-mail from Yossi Katz:

The Breslov Research Institute (BRI) was founded in 1979 in order to begin the monumental task of translating Rebbe Nachman's works into English allowing access to the greater North American public. This truly was a pioneering work as almost nothing of the sort had been done with Chassidish books in general. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan championed the cause and began this holy work. What he accomplished was to pave the way for all future translations by finding ways of translating and bringing concepts written in the Chassidic / Kabbalistic language over to English. This was no easy task as the entire style of Breslover books is very foreign to the native English tongue. Since that time, over 100 titles have been published in many different languages including English, French, and Spanish. BRI even translates many of their works back over to Ivrit. Today, thank G-d, almost all of Rebbe Nachman's original works have been translated and his magma opus Likutey Moharan has but two and a half volumes left, with an estimated siyum to take place be'ezras HaShem in three years.

Although BRI has maintained a web presence since 1997, we have decided to continue the work of bringing access to the English speaking public vis a vis a new website and new web initiatives. We aim to bring a professional, fluid, content rich website to the public, so that if one is looking for Breslov information, they will find what they are looking for. One of the main things we want to do was to have a blog where we would translate some new things, repost some old translations and discuss some of our books. Also, we want to provide a forum for discussing what it means to be a Breslover in day to day 21 century life. Our goal is to get a talented list of contributers and to rotate their articles with the other previously mentioned content. Chaim Oliver who professionally maintains blogs for large corporations, has volunteered to maintain our blog.

One new feature is a digital kvittel to the Tzion. You can fill in your info and one of us will bring it to the Rebbe's Tzion. We also are working on having an up to date calendar announcing the shiurim given around the world. For many years we have had a parsha e-mailing and we invite people to sign up. We have many audio shiurim hosted on our site and we would like to expand the section with more audio shiurim and other forms of media. There is also a "bookshelf" section where you can taste many of our publications. You can also ask Breslov related questions on our website and someone from BRI will get back to you. Lastly, our online bookstore was also redone just a little while ago. You can find all of our English books there and get some goods deals and discounts. Next week be'ezras HaShem our Spanish books will also be available for sale.

We are in need of much help, and are always looking for volunteers and ideas. Our website can only be as good as the effort put in to it, so we truly appreciate anyone who has any experience on the web in helping out. Also, on our website we welcome people to become members of BRI. By joining you partner with us in this great zchus and also get some of our publications and discounts.

It is our prayer that the Tzaddik's teaching should spread and continue helping Jews. We feel humbled and privileged to be able to take part in even a small part of this process. Please visit us on the web at http://www.breslov.org/